The acclaimed young Canadian artist honours her first fiddle teacher after representing Canada at Sweden's Lilla By Festivalen

Irish Millie has released "Allison," the opening track from her acclaimed EP 'Between Then and Now,' and a song that traces the quiet beginnings of one of Canada's most exciting young voices in folk and roots music. Built around the intimate interplay of fiddle and guitar, "Allison" is a tribute to Sally Pirie, the fiddle teacher who first placed an instrument in Irish Millie’s hands at age six and shaped the musical foundation that everything since has grown from.

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The 19-year-old singer, songwriter and fiddler from Peterborough, Ontario wrote the song as a thank you in melody form. Irish Millie studied with Pirie until she was 12 and later joined her teacher's beloved community band, The Fyd-l-Styx, a gathering of musicians of all ages devoted to old-time Canadian fiddle music and to playing for the love of it. When Pirie passed in December 2024, Irish Millie poured her gratitude into a jig written in her honour, then built a song around it so the tune could carry forward. "And oh, the dancing in the rain, through the barn to western swing," she sings, "and oh, the people they would sing, but you wanted your own jig." The refrain returns again and again to that single, tender idea of finding your own voice.